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Is Metrolink Up to the Job? Train Crash Raises Doubts

AWOL execs slammed in aftermath of worst crash in decades

By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff

Posted Sep 20, 2008 2:05 PM CDT

(Newser) – The country's deadliest train crash in decades has focused attention on mass transit carrier Metrolink, which operates on a shoestring budget and has many wondering whether it's up to the job, the Los Angeles Times reports. Five Southern California counties chip in to run the system, set up with relatively few employees to be light on expenses and low on bureaucracy. That means its board must grapple with managing a maze of subcontracts as well as the challenges of running the sprawling system.

Transport experts say that Metrolink—which has one of the highest fatality rates of any rail system in the nation—is doing what it can on safety, but bad luck has been worsened by the need to share the rails with freight trains and a lack of funding. Its board, criticized for being AWOL in the wake of the crash, admits lacking in expertise. "It looks like we didn't have as much knowledge as we should have had," the chairman said. "I know I didn't."         

An honor guard stands as the body of a Los Angeles Police Department Officer who was killed in the crash of a MetroLink train is carried from the wreckage in the Chatsworth area of Los Angeles .
An honor guard stands as the body of a Los Angeles Police Department Officer who was killed in the crash of a MetroLink train is carried from the wreckage in the Chatsworth area of Los Angeles .   (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)
A Metrolink engineer walks past a rose left near the track at the Metrolink Moorpark station, on the first day that the train service was restored after Friday's train accident that killed 25.
A Metrolink engineer walks past a rose left near the track at the Metrolink Moorpark station, on the first day that the train service was restored after Friday's train accident that killed 25.   (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
Rescue personnel work at the scene of a train crash in Los Angeles, Friday, Sept. 12, 2008.
Rescue personnel work at the scene of a train crash in Los Angeles, Friday, Sept. 12, 2008.   (AP Photo/Hector Mata)
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